Image of the Lymph System

Anatomy of the lymph system, showing the lymph vessels and lymph organs including lymph nodes, tonsils, thymus, spleen, and bone marrow. Lymph (clear fluid) and lymphocytes travel through the lymph vessels and into the lymph nodes where the lymphocytes destroy harmful substances. The lymph enters the blood through a large vein near the heart.

Specialties & Treatments

The treatment or combination of treatments each patient has depends on the recommendations of the care team and the patient’s wishes. These are the most common types of treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma:

Watchful waiting

Chemotherapy

Radiation therapy

Surgery

Targeted therapy

Immunotherapy

Plasmapheresis

Antibiotic therapy

Stem cell transplant

Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Hematologic Cancers Program provides comprehensive, compassionate, state-of-the-art care for people with all types of blood cancers and conditions.

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Causes & Risk Factors

Anything that increases your chance of getting a disease is called a risk factor. Having a risk factor does not mean you are sure to get cancer. It means your chances are higher than the average person’s. Talk with your doctor to learn more about your cancer risk.

Laboratory tests: By testing body tissues, blood, urine, or other substances in the body, your health care team can check to see how the organs are functioning. They also look for abnormal amounts of blood cells.

Bone marrow biopsy: The health care provider removes a small sample of bone marrow to look for abnormal cells under a microscope.

Lymph node biopsy: The health care provider removes part or all of a lymph node to look for abnormal cells under a microscope.

Stages of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Cancer stages show whether cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Cancer spreads in the body in three ways: through tissue, the lymph system, or the blood.

These are the stages used for non-Hodgkin lymphoma:

Stage I, IE

Stage II, IIE

Stage III, IIIE, IIIS, IIIE+S

Stage IV

Here are explanations for the E and S labels of these stages:

E (Extranodal): This means that the cancer is outside the lymph system.

S (Spleen): This means that the cancer is in the spleen.

When cancer spreads from where it started to another part of the body, it is called metastasis. These metastatic cancer cells are the same type of cancer as the primary tumor. For example, if non-Hodgkin lymphoma spreads to the liver, the cancer cells in the liver are actually non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells. The disease is metastatic non-Hodgkin lymphoma, not liver cancer.